Commissioner Dyson Heydon's recommendations proposing that superannuation arrangements be removed from bargaining is just one example of this impediment to bargaining. Photo: Ben Rushton

He joins a short line of judges who have delivered similar decisions against unions such as the defunct Builders Labourers Federation, the Painters and Dockers, and the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.

But only Mr Heydon achieved the singular honour of shooting himself in the foot with his own royal commission.

On August 31 this year, he administered the kiss of life to himself to save his own royal commission.

For 18 days he'd been drowning in a whirlpool of his own making. For much of that time Australia had been wondering how the former High Court of Australia justice could save himself and breathe life back into his Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption.

Advertisement

It emerged Mr Heydon had agreed in April to deliver the 6th Sir Garfield Barwick Address, a fundraising event organised by a branch of the Liberal Party, and had "overlooked" the political aspect of his dining companions.

The matter bubbled away while Mr Heydon continued to conduct his hearings.

On August 17, Fairfax Media reported that Mr Heydon, a former Rhodes Scholar, was on the panel that awarded then prime minister Tony Abbott his Rhodes scholarship.

Unions went ballistic.

Four days later the ACTU, AWU and CFMEU all made applications in the commission for Mr Heydon to step down.

His opponents saw it as a question of propriety. Mr Heydon, and the government who appointed him, saw it purely in legal terms.

Known as a loner with a love for black letter law, an aversion to computers and an apparent fear of emails, Mr Heydon, 72, served as a justice of the High Court of Australia between 2003-2013 after being a justice of the NSW Court of Appeal.

Previously he'd been dean of the Sydney Law School. He'd retired from the High Court at the constitutionally mandated age of 70 and picked up the trade union royal commission as a retirement gig.

On Monday, August 31, Mr Heydon walked into the royal commission's Sydney hearing room and asked if anybody was present from the ACTU. When answers came there were none, Mr Heydon outlined his reasons and tabled his 67-page reasons for finding himself such a jolly good fellow.